Under this plan , special squads of traffic police have been deputed on all the main roads to control the traffic mess, said Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) Yousaf Ali Shahid here on Friday.

The squads were deployed at Murree Road, Rawal Road, Adiala Road, Airport Road, Peshawar Road and in markets to control traffic , he said.

He said that a complete ban was imposed on use of mobile phones by traffic wardens and officers during duty hours while strict action would be taken against the violators.

He said wrong parking would also be barred and all the vehicles and motorcycles would be lifted with lifters that were found in no parking areas.

Similarly, the traffic police on orders of RPO would also carry out operation against encroachments for which surprise checking would also be done by him. CTO Yousaf Ali Shahid asked all the beat officers to perform duties with commitment and dedication or else strict departmental action would be initiated against them. He also requested the citizens to cooperate with traffic police to avoid any mess on the roads.

According to him, RPO earlier held meeting of promotion board which was also attended by City Police Officer (CPO), Israr Ahmed Khan Abbasi, District Police Officers of Attock, Jhelum and Chakwal Zahid Nawaz Marwat, Hassan Asad Alvi and Munir Masood Marth. During board meeting, the interviews of a total of 202 ASIs were conducted out of which 24 were promoted to the rank of SIs. RPO also confirmed 50 ASIs that were deputed in the various parts of the region, he said.

PMAS-AAUR, ACIAR ink MoU to form research partnership

Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR) and Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) here on Friday. The MoU is aimed at to form a research partnership to address the issues of groundwater table and quality decline for improvement in farmer livelihoods.

Vice Chancellor (VC) Prof Dr Rai Niaz Ahmad and Dr Evan Christen from ACIAR signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organizations. On the occasion, Dr Ashfaq Sheikh, Dr Jahangir Punthkay of CSU, Dr Max Finlayson (CSU) and faculty from PMAS-AAUR were also present.

This MoU will be a suite of groundwater and econometric modelling tools for developing guidelines for sustainable management of groundwater resources and improved cropping and water management options. Farmers will be direct beneficiaries, as community awareness of groundwater management will provide a basis for addressing equity issues in relation to water distribution (entitlement), improving groundwater access, and reducing salinity and sodicity impacts. There will also be environmental benefits from reduced risk of salinisation of land and water through unsustainable use of water resources. The local scientific community can benefit through capacity building, cross-learning, focussed training workshops in groundwater and econometric modelling, and opportunities for graduate students at partner universities.

VC Prof Dr Rai Niaz Ahmad at the occasion express the hope that this collaboration of the international and national research organizations would come up with best possible solutions for sustainability of ground water use to improve the socio-economic livelihood of the farming community.

He said that PMAS-AAUR is very much committed to solve the water governance issues of the country and this MoU will help for better understanding of water issues of Pakistan through advanced research based studies and also will help to improve the water governance at micro level.